1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and an apparatus for modeling a synthetic crystal structure, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for modeling a synthetic crystal structure which are used for designing inorganic materials in the fields of chemistry and physics, for example.
2. Description of Related Art
In a design of inorganic materials, such as superconductive materials and semiconductors, a modeling of a crystal structure represented by atoms is performed, and various structural data are extracted from a modeled crystal structure. Due to symmetry, periodicity of the modeled crystal structure, and to arrangement of atoms, physical functions of the designed inorganic material can be known. The crystal structure of an inorganic material is formed by synthesizing various featured structure elements. Thus, the various featured structure elements are synthesized so that virtual crystal structure is made. The physical functions of an inorganic material having the virtual crystal structure are then studied.
Conventionally, the modeling of a crystal structure of an inorganic material is carried out by operations of assembling plastic model of structure elements and tracing the assembled structure. In this conventional modeling of the crystal structure, as an operator actually assembles the plastic models of the structure elements by hand, it is hard for the operator to assemble the plastic models of the structure elements.